Tuesday, May 14, 2013

City of Bones

If you'd prefer not to read my emotional journey with City of Bones, and just want to know if you should read it or not, read what Holly Black said of Cassandra Clare and know that it is so true of this story:

'She is the rare writer who can writer fast-paced dramatic fantasy with gorgeous lnguage and memorable characters that you grow to love and worry about, as well as really funny bits that will make you honestly laugh.'

And if you do care, then hi, and welcome to an emotional rollercoaster.

I've really enjoyed reading this book, it's been so fun falling in love with Jace, and also imagining Clary as Lily Cole. (I only started reading this after the movie trailer came out) This book hooked me from the start, with the perfect combination of modern life and the history of a magic underworld, as well as that ever-fascinating battle for good over evil.

I'm alll about the love story, so what's pulling me through is this FALL IN LOVE WITH JACE thing. It's pretty much all my Goodreads updates have been saying. (Also, Simon LITERALLY IS the Link to Isabelle's Ridley.) *Beautiful Creatures Reference*

I'm a little sad for Simon, beause I'm not sure Clary appreciates him. It seems like she just wants him there because he always has been, and she doesn't know who she would be without him. I kind of picture Simon lying in bed listening to this song wishing Clary would walk in and say those words to him.

My favourite moment was the kiss, where I air punched and sat in bed with a silly smile wishing I was on a rooftop greenhouse date at midnight. And an even bigger smile for this:

*a moment of silence while we smile to ourselves and get butterflies and whisper 'I love you, Jace. I love you.'

There are two MAJOR plot twists, that I actually can't even emotionally deal with. If you've read the book you'll know what I mean just by the way I reacted:

This is the first book (confession time) that I didn't kind of (eeep, do I say this) skim over the battle scenes to see who's winning. I guess, usually it's like swords and injuries and strategies and maybe I found it boring or maybe I didn't always understand what's happening haha, but this one, the way she writes.. It's so intertwined with the emotional connection between characters, and maybe because there's always a group of them fighting, it's gripping. I wanted to know every detail, from the way the room looks to which dagger was used.

She writes so descriptively, it's beautiful. The relationships between characters, and the mysteries unfolding as they find out the truth of their past, is so complicated. But she makes it seem so simple, in the most wonderful way, like you're just swept along the journey with them.

And actually this song just came on shuffle, and maybe this is my Belieber heart thinking 'CANT JACE SAY THIS TO CLARY and make it all okay' *cries hopefully*

Can we also take a moment to acknowledge that movie-Simon is kind of cute and maybe we fall in love with him eventually, I don't know, but I'd maybe be okay with it.

a riot of color
locked up in your head, under those pretty curls
looking tousled and half-awake
with early morning hair and sleepy eyes

fingers as thin as parchment, inked all over with runes
made of a dark burned-looking silver with a pattern of stars around the band
brightly coloured cushions, endearingly mismatched crockery

it moved like light
she seemed to shimmer in the lamplight
air like ancient wedding veils

a strangely beautiful cascade of silver strands
the dusty air of Brooklyn
his arms holding her up and the stars hurtling down around her head like a rain of silver tinsel.

Quotable moments
It's your gift, to see the beauty and the horror in ordinary things. It doesn't make you crazy--just different.
His face was so familiar she could have traced its lines in her sleep
He caught her as of he were used to catching fainting girls, as if he did it every day.

The last light of sunset struck gold sparks from his eyes.
The moon hung like a locket over the city

"He always says exactly what comes into his head. No filters." "Filters are for cigarettes and coffee."

They tantalized her sight the way half-heard words in a foreign language sometimes tantalized her hearing.

'It smells like...' Springtime, she thought, before the heat comes and crushes the leaves to a pulp and withers the petals off the flowers. 'Home,' said Jace,'to me.'

'Then you will see the world as it is--infinite.'

The face of the angel was fierce and beautiful and sad
In your waking dream you saw it written

There was a kinetic, almost feverish energy to him that hadn't been there before. Something about Jace sharpened him, brought him into focus.
If she were going to draw them together, she thought, she would make Jace a little blurry, while Alec stood out, all sharp, clear panes and angles.

Afternoon light slanted in through the parted curtains, laying bars of gold across the floor.

he wanted the bird to know him, even if the bird had to consume his blood to make it happen
His eyes ran up and down her lazily, like the stroking paws of a cat.
'I don't care if I'm different,' she said. 'I just want to be who I really am.'

She heard her own voice as if from a distance: astonishment, gratitude, longing so sharp it was painful.

as if he could tell he had her pinned there like a butterfly to a board
The tip of the sword kissed Valentine's throat.

'It's not so much that he's kinder [with you], but that he lets you see the kindness in him.'